1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to integrated circuit(s) cards (IC cards) and card terminals, and more specifically to IC cards, terminals and communication standards between cards and terminals as described in the ISO 7816 for cards with contacts, in the ISO 10 536 for contactless cards and in the EN 726 for cards and terminals for telecommunication use.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is possible to load data for many different card applications (CA1, CA2, CA3, etc.) (see FIGS. 1,2) of different application providers (AP1, AP2, AP3, etc.)like banks, dealer organizations, clubs, telephone companies, insurance companies, special service providers, etc. into the memory of an IC card. Such cards are known as multiapplication cards (MACs).
It is obvious that a MAC provides the opportunity to combine the benefits of many different application providers onto one card. The combination of two application providers on a known magnetic stripe card is commonly called "co-branding". There are many different co-branding cards in today's market.
However, the possibilities of a MAC greatly exceed the limits of a co-branding card, i.e. the multitude of possibilities of combining the benefits of different application providers on one MAC. Because of this, pools of MAC providers could be established. For example, a phone company could combine its phone service with the benefits of a bank. The memory of the same card could also be used for an insurance company. In addition, a credit card organization could combine its card with the benefits of a travel agency and further add the benefits of a club to the card. Also, the unfilled memory on the card could still provide the benefits of a retail and department store. For MAC provider pools, it would be advantageous to quickly penetrate the market and thereby reserve a substantial market share by issuing many cards in a short time to a great number of consumers. Because of this advantage, different MAC provider pools would spread out into the marketplace.
However, this situation is problematic for the card user. First, if the user chooses one card, the user then has to do without the benefit of the other MAC. If the user desires the benefits of more than one card, the troubles of using many cards arise. A main problem is having to carry several different cards with different applications and service benefits. Thus, the advantages of carrying only one MAC which serves all the different benefits of the various cards is not achieved.
As a result, a customer who has to choose between many different, but more narrowed MAC services, needs a longer decision time to select the best MAC. Thus, the total MAC market penetration would require a longer time to mature. The return of investment for a card issuer is thereby delayed.
It is known that a market for a unique product is often a fast growing market. For example, one of the most successful recent market penetrations occurred with the digital music disc. One of the most helpful effects was the international technical standard providing a compatible technique for compatible disc players. At least in part, the overwhelming success of the compact disc was due to a compatible standard in the industry.
To further understand the field, a quick summary of MACs follows. Certain types of MACs exist at present. For example, if a card holder can use the MAC only within a specified MAC provider pool, the MAC is known as a closed MAC (CMAC). A CMAC is characterized by the allowing only card applications of the specific provider pool and excluding applications of other providers, especially competing MAC providers.
In opposition to the concept of the CMAC is a MAC which is open to all the different applications of different providers. Such a MAC is known as an open MAC (OMAC). An OMAC allows the card holder the possibility of selecting the application or provider to use with the MAC. Thus, the user needs to carry only one OMAC instead of many different cards with different services.
As a result of the international distribution of MACs comes the requirement for a standardized reference system which decides whether a MAC or a MAC terminal meets the standards and will communicate in a specified manner. OMACs particularly need a standardized reference to make sure that different applications of different providers work together without interfering with the different data stored in the MAC.
Such attempts for standardization of IC cards have led to many results which are described in the papers of the ISO/IEC/JTCI/SC17, the CEN/TC224 and the ETSI. There are several reasons why these papers do not guaranty that different issued MACs could be used at any terminal in a predictable manner.
One reason for possible incompatibility is that some of the papers describe optional solutions. Thus, there could be IC-cards issued to a user with different physical conditions or data structures. Also there could be terminals with different protocol structures installed. The result is that cards and terminals cannot work together in a determined manner.
Another reason for incompatibility is possible misinterpretation in reading the ISO papers. The misinterpretation by designers could result in different hardware layouts and different written programs on both the card level and the system level.
A third reason for incompatibility is the possibility of the ISO papers containing some inconsistencies which could lead to inconsistencies in the developed hardware and software. If the inconsistencies become obvious, developers may circumvent the inconsistencies in different ways. It is obvious that in both cases inconsistencies could result in incompatibility.
In all three mentioned cases, the issuer of cards and/or terminals may maintain that their products are ISO-compatible. Thus, there is no reliability that the interaction between card and terminal would work in a determined process in accordance with the intention of the ISO-standardization.
Today, no other reference exists other than the descriptions of the ISO, etc. There is no reference-process or reference-system by which it could be decided in a determined objective manner whether a card and/or terminal operates in a compatible manner.